Yay, I finally got a star rating for my Ebay user account. I’ve got a feedback score of 10, which allows me 1 yellow star. Next target : 50 = different colored star. Let’s see, to get a 10, it took me 5 years, so to get to 50, it should only take me 20 more years :).
I’m Luke Skywalker 
| Which Star Wars Jedi/Sith are you?
Luke Skywalker You are the last hope for the Jedi order with Yoda and Obi Wan kicking the bucket. There are some tough battles that you have to fight both physically and emotionally, but unlike your father, you have what it takes to win them. The burden is reflected in your expression, which is quite depressing once you start on your long journey. Of course, it could be because before going Jedi-celibate, your only sexual experience came from your sister *shudder*. |
| Click Here to Take This Quiz Brought to you by YouThink.com quizzes and personality tests. |
I’m stuck at the office now… not that i am leaving anytime soon 
lol…
But this time, i might have to stay later due to the tornado… most of the road is flooded. There are some ‘flood’ pictures at www.pulse24.com. Well, it’ll be a fun drive home tonight. Hope that none of you guys were stuck in the traffic or worst, got your cars flooded in the middle of the road.
I just bought an electronic keyboard for practice at home. It’s an entry level one, and apparently quite good, it’s a Casio CTK 591.
Got it off Ebay for CAD $71 + $30 S&H so total $101. Not a bad deal considering the new ones still retail for about CAD $150 – $160.
Will keep everyone updated on my progress. Of course I’m just doing this for fun, the one really using it would be my wife because she’s taking tutorials for an advanced level student, while I’m just at the beginners.
Well, I can chalk off “Stung by Bee” from the list of things that is not pleasant and never happened before.
It is definitely one of the most painful experience that one can ever experience. As for me, it has been almost 12 hrs since I was stung and I am still experiencing considerable pain and discomfort. Anyway, I immediately look for treatment methodology and find a pretty good list from www.drgeene.com/21_2002.html. Here it is:
- Remove the stinger with all haste, in whatever manner is most convenient. If you see a little black – dot in the wound, part of the stinger is still present.
- Apply a solution of one part meat tenderizer to 4 parts water. Papain, the enzyme in meat tenderizer, breaks down the protein in bee venom responsible for the pain and itching. Don’t leave this on for more than 30 minutes, or it can irritate the skin. If this isn’t available, you might try an antiperspirant. Aluminum chlorohydrate reduces the effect of bee venom, but to a lesser extent.
- Apply cold. Use ice or cool water for 10 to 30 minutes after the sting. This blunts the body’s allergic response.
- An antihistamine such as Benadryl, taken by mouth, can give some added relief, and help prevent the reaction from spreading.
- A shake lotion such as calamine can be helpful. A paste made of baking soda and water can have a similar effect.
- Topical hydrocortisone can also provide some symptomatic relief.
- Give acetaminophen or ibuprofen for systemic pain relief.
Oh well, life goes on
After this experience, I decided to share some things I learnt about what to do and what not to do when you try to purchase something from Ebay. I’m pretty sure it’s common sense, and I knew everything about protecting myself from scams, including the fact that if something’s too good to be true, then it probably is, and yet at that moment of bidding, adrenaline seemed to blank all these things out. So here you go:
), then use an escrow service such as Escrow.com to protect yourself. Even here, be wary of unscrupulous escrow services that are in league with the sellers and can also steal your money. Only use reputable and well known escrow services.I’m sure there are many more guides on how to protect yourself on Ebay out there. Just Google around, and you’re bound to find tons of information. The moral is to educate yourself before making any transaction on Ebay.
Aaaarrggghhh…. looks like the laptop I bought might have been a scam. After I won that Ebay auction, I sent an Interac email money transfer the night. The seller actually contacted me and gave me his full name, physical address and phone number. I was pretty sure at the time that within 2 or 3 weeks I’d have a brand new shiny Inspiron 700m in my hands.
To my shock, 2 days after the auction ended, the user became non-registered on Ebay, which usually signifies a scam. At that time I still thought this buyer might still be legit because of his previous sales that went through ok, plus the fact that he actually gave me his details. I didn’t call him, but emailed him to ask about the status of my shipment.
After not receiving any reply, plus some postings on the ebay forums, I decided to take action and cancel the interac transfer. Luckily it still hadn’t gone through and I managed to get the money back. I was thinking of sending him another transfer, but this time with a new security question that I’d only give if he called me. Although, that might not be a good idea either (come to think about it: probably dumb idea, but still want to give the guy the benefit of the doubt). Any opinions ?
Update: I’ve decided to not have anything to do with this purchase. Seems like the wise thing to do from any view. Just shows you how clouded a person’s judgement can get from “too good to be true items”
There’s nothing like a lively-Friday afternoon-time wasting-all ready for the weekend chat with a group of buddies in the office. Everybody’s in weekend mode, ready to go home, projects done (or on hold) for the week and 2 people bump into each other, start chatting, then more people bump into the group, and end up having a fun and interesting group chat about everything from the latest technology to sports to vacations.
Which brings me to a point: I’m involved in a new site starting up, nothing really innovative or anything, just a group of friends, deciding to improve our writing skills and post daily about issues that come up in everyday life. We’re hoping to have an online version of what I described in that opening paragraph, lively and entertaining discussions.
So, if you’re bored and need to just chat about something, head over to TheCoolerZone.com for a friendly group discussion.
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I’ve noticed that I’m more motivated to complete learning a particular topic if I have it in paper / hard copy. Of course, there are tons more information available online compared to one hard copy book on a particular topic, and yet I think that’s part of the problem with browsing for certain topics. There’s just too much information !!! Take my case for example, I was looking for topics on sales and marketing. Do you know how many results are returned from Google on such a query? Definitely more than I’d like to sort through 
Just to support that point: I have online education access to a multitude of courses that I can choose from. It’s quite easy to use, just browse to it, select a course I like and it brings it up in the browser. The problem with this is that the distractions of being on a PC keeps preventing me from completing anything. Emails keep popping up every few minutes, temptation to check the latest news, people calling to fix problems, etc. Even though I have a fixed training time in the office, I still can’t avoid the email/call that needs my immediate attention.
The beauty of buying a book is the fact that I’ll still be able to have a leisurely read on the train during my trips back and forth from work, and also in places where I don’t have a PC in front of me. Sure it costs a bit more, but what’s the use of free information on the internet if I never have the chance to finish my study of a particular topic? Sometimes I just get a defeated feeling when trying to learn something from the internet, because of the knowledge that there’s no end to things I can find out there.
I still read things on the internet for high level knowledge and google like crazy for every problem I find, but to grow and learn, I think I’ll start buying books from now.
TheCoolerZone.com was started as a virtual ‘water cooler’ area. A ‘water cooler’ is traditionally the place where people in an office environment bump into each other. From there on usually comes lively and interesting discussions / debates about everyday issues that come into mind, such as sports, technology, health, business. These conversations tend to be informal, contain non-expert opinion on matters, and are above all things fun and interesting to participate in.
What this site intends to do is create something like an online version of such a place, where people can just drop by, leave comments, participate in the discussion and review events that are posted on a particular topic. The initial goal of this site is to build up as much content as possible every day so that there is a variety of discussion that can go on.
Some of you might ask, “Is a forum environment not more appropriate for such a thing?” Although I agree that a forum might seem more appropriate for what we want to do, yet a forum wouldn’t give us as much control as to what topics are covered, who can contribute to a post and generally would require much more maintenance and manpower than we have right now. At the beginning, we’re just trying to grow the readership, build relations with people, get into the habit of daily writing, and in the future recruit more authors and contributors. At that time, if we have enough people to moderate, then forums might become another option.
We hope to make this a friendly environment where people are comfortable visiting and saying things that are in their mind, and ask for your support and participation as we grow as a community. If there are any suggestions, comments, ideas that you would like to contribute, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
Sincerely,
TheCoolerZone.com team
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